Work begins to restore historic tile flooring at Morecambe Winter Gardens

The tesserae tiled floor is slowly being restored – cleaning the ingrained grime from 126 years of footprints and replacing damaged tiles where necessary.

The work is taking place over the winter months after the Winter Gardens Preservation Trust raised £45,000 to allow the operation to be carried out.

Specialist restoration work is required for the mosaic floor, which was designed in 1897 by the Campbell Tile Company.

Years of neglect, vandalism and damage resulted in the unique and bespoke floor having to be covered and protected, but as more people visited the building the greater the risk of possible damage became.

The theatre has a window between now and March 2024 for the essential work to take place to restore and replace the many thousands of tesserae tiles that make up the floor and replace elements of the Victorian features.